bigglesfandomcom-20200215-history
Worrals Flies Again/plot
Chapter I: Worrals Has a Visitor Squadron Leader Yorke has a proposal for Worrals. A light aircraft could be hidden in France, ready to fly home urgent messages delivered by British agents. It would be more secure than using radio and more reliable than carrier pigeons. There was an ideal location: the largely ruined Chateau Delarose on the Loire. It had vast cellars which could accomodate an aircraft with folding wings. Only a caretaker and his family lived there. Worrals could stay with them under the guise of being a visiting relative. The Germans would not suspect a girl of being a spy or a pilot. Worrals persuades Yorke to let her take Frecks along. Yorke shows her a photo of a man with small piercing eyes set close together. Hauptmann Wilhelm von Brandisch, head of the Gestapo in occupied France and Worrals' most dangerous adversary. "I might forget the face, but never those eyes," Worrals declares. There's also a characteristic dry, rasping cough to listen out for, Yorke adds. Chapter II: At the Chateau Delarose Flying a Merton Midget light aircraft, the girls arrive by night at the chateau. They are greeted by the caretaker Alphonse Mundier who says little except to express his incredulity that "they have sent a girl". Madame Mundier explains they have arrived at a bad time: a unit of German troops had been billeted in the chateau. Chapter III: Swift Developments With Monsieur and Madame Mundier is Lucien, their son, described by Squadron Leader Yorke as "not quite right in the head". His habit of laughing eerily frightens the girls but he is helpful enough and helps to move the aircraft into the cellars. Chapter IV: Strange Events Over dinner, Worrals and Frecks meet two German officers, Oberleutnant Schaffer and Leutnant Lowenhardt. Schaffer is garrulous. He boasts about catching a spy who is now in the guardroom. He even shows Worrals the message found on the spy: page 137 from a common French history book L'histoire de la Revolution. Worrals has a shock when she sees the letter U, followed by the Roman number VII and then "K.G." Yorke had told her to watch out for such markings. The "U" prefix signified an urgent message which must get home immediately. Part way through the meal, a soldier enters to report that the spy has escaped! The Germans leave. Worrals wants to try to retrieve the message but Monsieur Mundier disagrees, saying it is impossible. The girls decide they must act on their own as they can't look to the Mundiers for help. The history book is a popular one and Worrals has seen a copy on the shelf in the kitchen. They wait for the Mundiers to retire and then steal downstairs to try to cut out page 137 to use a replacement when they lift the real one from Schaffer's pocket. They get to the book but page 137 has already been cut out! Chapter V: Sinister Proceedings An imperfect substitute is better than none so Worrals tears out page 139 and puts the same markings on it. But there is a slight scraping noise and the girls hide. Someone else is in the room! After the noise recedes, Worrals switches on her torch and finds ... the book is gone! The girls go back to their room. There is a knock on the door. It's Lucien. He wants them to follow him. He takes them by secret corridors to a trapdoor. From it Worrals can look down into the hall where the Germans are sleeping. At one end is Schaffer's bed, his tunic with the all important message hanging on the chair. But they do not have a string or rope. How to get the message? But as she looks, one of the sleeping soldiers gets up, creeps over to Schaffer's bed and steals the message! Somewhat bewildered, the girls return to their room and find that the message is now on their bed! Concerned that Schaffer might miss the message when he wakes, Worrals goes back to the trapdoor and drops page 139 onto the floor near him. Chapter VI: A Disturbing Visitor Next morning Schaffer says that his unit has orders to move out immediately to Tours. He is glad for more comfortable billets. He checks with Worrals if the page he showed her was 137 or 139. Worrals thinks it might be 139 and he agrees, dismissing the concern of Lowenhardt that it was really 137 and that it was found on the floor by his bed. Around lunchtime a nun shows up. She chats with the family but Worrals is not deceived. One look at her eyes tells her its von Brandisch in disguise. "She" makes a show of moving around the room and looks through the history book on the shelf and leafs through the pages. To Worrals' surprise, pages 137 and 139 are intact. The book has been changed! Chapter VII: Adventure Underground The girls go to check on their aircraft in the cellar. They hear voices and hide. A man who looks like Lucien is talking to someone through a window or trapdoor. He then leaves without seeing Worrals and Frecks. Going to their aircraft, there is another surprise. There us another message pinned to the door! It is raining and visibility is almost zero. Its the best time to fly the messages home--the Germans were watching but they expect flights to take place at night. Worrals goes off alone, leaving Frecks at the chateau. Chapter VIII: Heavy Going for Frecks Towards evening, Frecks takes a walk in the grounds. She spots von Brandisch and some soldiers planting stakes with wires--setting traps for aircraft! She hears Worrals' plane coming back and rushes to the chateau roof to send the prearranged danger signal with her torch. But it's too late. The plane tries to land, crashes and bursts into flames. Worse is to come. Late in the night, von Brandisch comes to talk to her. Chapter IX: What Happened to Worrals The story rolls back to Worrals. She gets back to England and reports to Yorke. He is concerned about von Brandisch moving about the chateau. As a back up, he asks Worrals to drop a basket of carrier pigeons for one of his agents in a wood some ten miles away. Worrals flies back and drops the basket but is annoyed to see that she has missed. She lands to retrieve the basket but before she can get back to her aircraft, a group of German soldiers arrive. From hiding, she sees a civilian, probably a Gestapo agent, fly her plane off. Now she has lost her means of transport. Worse, her map has a careless pin hole on the chateau. Worrals makes her way back on foot. Now Yorke's wisdom becomes apparent. She gets lifts in various German vehicles and no one bothers to search her or her incriminating parcels: a pigeon basket and food bought from England. The last ride is supplied by Schaffer. He is chatty and tells her an aeroplane has crashed at the chateau. He adds, in a conspiratorial tone, that she should watch out for Lowenhardt. He has remained behind at the chateau and he is not what he seems. Chapter X: A New Assignment Worrals arrives at the chateau and steps into her room where von Brandisch is questioning Frecks. Worrals manages to convince von Brandisch that she has been away shopping at Tours. He tells them a plane has crashed in the chateau ground but the pilot isn't a British spy. He is puzzled but doesn't pursue the subject. The girls end up being appointed unofficial Gestapo agents, to report anything unusual at the chateau! Chapter XI: Drama on the Roof Next morning, Worrals and Frecks go to the roof to release a pigeon to inform Yorke about what has happened and ask for instructions. Worrals is about to release the bird when an arm grips her. Lowenhardt! Worrals yells to Frecks to run away. Lowenhardt pulls out his gun and is about to shoot Frecks when there is a thud and he falls. He has been killed by a crossbow bolt fired from somewhere. A few minutes later, the girls return and find the body has disappeared! In the kitchen, Worrals sees Lucien making four cups of coffee and challenges him. Who is the fourth cup for? Things are getting too dangerous. It's time to stop the masquerade and work together she says. Lucien agrees. He tells the girls he is actually the Vicomte de la Rose. His parents are the Count and Comtesse. Lucien is the head of the spy network centred on the chateau. Chapter XII: Council of War A council of war is held in Worrals and Frecks' room. Lucien introduces them to Raoul, marquis de Saronceau, his childhood friend. He was the spy Schaffer had caught but Lucien freed him through a secret door. He was also the one who retrieved page 137 by posing as a German soldier and bunking in the room with them. There's news that Monsieur Mundier had been arrested by the Gestapo in Tours. Worrals points out that she must report the disappearance of Lowenhardt. As "Gestapo agents" von Brandisch would expect the girls to do so. The next day, Lucien and Raoul would place his uniform by the river and Worrals would go to Tours to tell him she found them there and suggest that he drowned while taking a swim. Chapter XIII: An Alarming Discovery Lowenhardt had been in his shirtsleeves on the roof. The girls go up there to figure out what he was doing. They are shocked to discover that he had been laying a microphone to bug their bedroom. Worrals traces the wire and is somewhat reassured that it ends at an amplifier set in an arbour in the garden. Frecks spots von Brandisch approaching the chateau so Worrals rushes back to the bedroom and they stage a conversation for his benefit. He goes off, seemingly satisfied. Chapter XIV: More Shocks The next day there is still no message from Yorke. Worrals decides to go to Tours to "report" Lowenhardt's disappearance to von Brandisch. At th Gestapo headquarters she meets soldiers taking away a British prisoner. It's Bill Ashton! You seem to know him, von Brandisch suggests. Worrals manages to explain that he was a British pilot who had patronised her cafe in Amiens years ago. Worrals tells von Brandisch she found Lowenhardt's uniform by the river. Von Brandisch takes her by car to the chateau to check it out and seems satisfied but he wants her to come back to Tours to help with questioning Bill. Fortunately he gives her a moment to update Frecks. Von Brandisch compliments Worrals for a job well done and says he may pay her. Worrals takes the opportunity to ask him to release Monsieur Mundier. Chapter XV: On Thin Ice Von Brandisch tells Worrals he needs to know Bill's mission and contacts urgent as he would soon be taken away to a proper prison camp. Worrals suggests that Bill be allowed to escape. He could then be tailed to his contacts. As she knew Bill, she could pose as the waitress to take Bill's food to him and discuss the "escape" with him. Von Brandisch accepts the idea. Worrals brings Bills lunch to him. She stages the conversation for von Brandisch, who is listening at the door: that she would help him escape if Bill would take her to England with him. Discreetly, Worrals also manages to communicate her true intent to Bill. Von Brandisch orders Monsieur Mundier to be released. Worrals tells him to get those at the chateau ready to evacuate. Chapter XVI: The Last Round Worrals takes the evening meal to Bill, this time with a file and rope supplied by von Brandisch. Bill manages to tell her that Yorke has ordered them to evacuate and get home and has made arrangements. Bill parachuted in to make contact but was captured. Worrals reports to von Brandisch that she had passed the escape materials to Bill but now the Gestapo chief upsets her plans--she would not be meeting Bill and "escaping" together after all. She is to stay with him while Bill would be followed by a surveillance team. Bill escapes on schedule and waits for Worrals but then moves off towards the chateau. Worrals and von Brandisch follows the surveillance operation by radio. She is appalled by the size of the surveillance team following Bill but then he manages to evade them and take over one of their motorcycles. Cursing the incompetence of his subordinates, von Brandisch takes Worrals to the chateau, Bill had already entered it. The Gestapo chief orders the chateau searched and everyone arrested while he and Worrals wait in the kitchen. The search reveals the pigeon basket and then ... two W.A.A.F. uniforms. Von Brandisch confronts Worrals. He is certain one would fit her. Worrals notices behind the German's back that a trap door is opening in the fireplace. Bill is beckoning to her. She takes the uniform and hurls it at von Brandisch while knocking out the candle, plunging the room into darkness. Shots ring out but Worrals makes it through the trapdoor where Bill and Lucien take her to an underground canal where the others are waiting in a boat. They travel by a secret tunnel which links to the an old mill by the river. Here Raoul leaves them: he will remain in France. Bill, now in charge of the escape plan, takes them to a crossroads where a lorry takes them away from the area to a field where Yorke is standing by with an aircraft which takes them all back to England. Category:Plot summaries